Adding pictures into a Gmail message will now be faster than ever thanks to a new feature introduced Tuesday that lets users quickly upload photos that have been backed up from their smartphones. The new feature is called "Insert Photo" and it appears at the bottom of the screen when users compose a new message using the Web version of Gmail. To display the "Insert Photo" icon, users must compose a new email and hover their mouse over the "+" symbol near the bottom of the page. After clicking the icon, Gmail will display a new window that is full of pictures taken by users on their smartphones.

Aaron Guy Leroux caught this shot at the start of the Los Angeles Tough Mudder race in San Bernardino on March 29. He took the photo with a Sony ILCE-7. Follow Samantha Schaefer on Twitter . Each week, we're featuring photos of Southern California submitted by readers. Share your photos on our Flickr page or reader submission gallery . Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram or visit latimes.com/socalmoments for more on this photo series.

The first lunar eclipse of 2014 - known as "blood moon" - is lighting up social media tonight as people post photos of the moon and the eclipse. Large crowd descended on the Griffith Observatory to look at the eclipse. They posted a variety of photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Here is a sampling: In Los Angeles, the most impressive part began around 11 p.m. when the first "bite" is taken out of the moon. It will be blotted out entirely by 12:06 a.m. Tuesday, said experts at the observatory.

A certain William Wachtel, the co-founder of WhyTuesday , an election reform group chaired by former UN Ambassador Andrew Young, wrote me over the weekend to complain that I treated Young harshly by criticizing his proposal to require Social Security to issue photo IDs. I called it "a terrible idea. " Norman Ornstein, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute and another co-founder of WhyTuesday, also defended the proposal, which Young mentioned at an event last week marking the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. Ornstein mounted his defense via Twitter , which only made Young's idea sound even shallower and more foolish. What these gentlemen failed to do is explain why requiring Social Security to issue photo IDs is not a terrible idea.

Maker Studios said on Monday that its deal to be acquired by the Walt Disney Co. has already been approved, throwing cold water on a last-minute offer from Relativity Media worth up to $1.1 billion. "As per the announcement made on March 24, Maker Studios has entered into a merger agreement with The Walt Disney Company," a Maker spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "The agreement has been approved by Maker Studios' Board of Directors and the majority of its shareholders and is expected to close in the next few weeks, subject to regulatory approval.

Art aficionados planning to attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this weekend will be able to watch artists create works live on the USC site as well as hear the many assembled writers. Artists' Row, a new feature at the festival, will house six artists who specialize in various media as they create pieces guided by the festival's theme, “Inspire Your Fire.” The artists will work throughout the weekend at the gathering at the University of Southern California; their pieces are expected to be finished by the end of the day on Sunday.

Today, the image would have gone viral in an instant: The president of the United States, dripping wet in swim trunks before a throng of excited beachgoers, trading a look and a laugh with an attractive woman in a polka-dot bikini. But well before the Internet's relentless rationing of spontaneous fame, the 1962 photo of President Kennedy at Santa Monica's beach made quite a splash. For a Los Angeles woman named Eva Ban, its effect lasted a lifetime. Ban was the woman in the two-piece swimsuit, which was called a bikini in news accounts but was modest by today's standards.

I hate meeting guys on the Internet. It's weird. It's creepy. It's not safe. But I liked blogger guy. I didn't meet blogger guy on Match, JDate or Tinder. I didn't meet him on Facebook or even on Twitter. He was an avid reader of my blog and often commented on my posts. He too was a twentysomething blogger, and he just seemed to get me. His comments led to emails. His emails led to instant messaging. And the instant messaging led to being Facebook friends. I enjoyed everything he had to say. He seemed so genuine.

Michaeleen Gallagher captured this image of two nestling hummingbirds at the Sunnyland Gardens in Rancho Mirage. The garden is a 9-acre, arid yet colorful landscape on the grounds of the Annenberg Retreat by Sunnylands . It's a peaceful sanctuary often used as a backdrop for meetings among national and global political leaders, most recently by President Obama and King Abdullah II of Jordan in February . Perhaps these baby...

On a warm, picturesque California day at the beach, it's hard to walk more than five feet without seeing someone with a camera or mobile phone. After all, the Instagram sunset possibilities are endless… But last Tuesday on the Huntington Beach Pier, photographer Ramon Ambriz stumbled upon an unusual sight that would soon rival filtered sunset pictures everywhere. Sitting on the back of a chained bike was a skeleton wearing a bikini and a...